Human beings come in all different shapes and sizes. For this reason, office chairs generally allow for adjustment eg seat height, seat depth. It is also known to provide for adjustment of armrests. A known adjustment includes a twisting action about a vertical axis. Another known type permits a twisting action as well as sideways movement. Another known type permits motion of the armrest in a predetermined oval path within a horizontal plane. Seat depth adjustment is one of the major adjustments required by an occupant of a chair and is to be commonly found on commercial office chairs. As the occupant adjusts their seat depth, the positioning of the armrests relative to the seat will vary even to the extent that the positioning of the armrests may be totally inappropriate for the occupant. Known office chairs do not satisfactorily meet the requirement of being easily adjustable to accommodate the seat depth position.
Another shortcoming of known armrest adjustment mechanisms is that they are not easy to adjust. Further, many of them have a large number of moving parts, meaning they can be expensive to manufacture and difficult to repair.
Yet another shortcoming of some of the known adjustable armrests is that they rely on force for adjustment. Therefore, while the occupant is using the chair in the normal fashion, the armrest will function as intended in the position selected by the user. However, if the user unintentionally bears considerable force against the armrests they can move. This can occur when the occupant uses the armrests to lift himself out of the chair. This can be destabilising to the occupant and moreover, requires the occupant to re-adjust the armrests when he resumes occupancy of the chair.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an armrest assembly which overcomes or at least addresses some of the foregoing disadvantages, and/or at least provides the public with a useful choice.